This is a predominantly Powerful & Extracted wine, but it shares structural nuances of Tone & Backbone as described in the tasting note below.
Tasting Notes
Full bodied with sweet blackberry, bramble, and red burry fruit, along with garrigue and lavender, followed by more subtle earthy, almost barnyard and mineral notes, punctuated by a spicy white peppery finsh.
Body is the impression of a wines weight, density, or its ‘mouth-feel’. Some wines feel weighty, or full bodied, while others feel light bodied. Wine runs the gamut from light to full, with most falling somewhere in between.
TANNIN
Low
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Tannin can range greatly in wine, but it is necessary to some degree, and a necessary constituent for red wines to age well. In high amounts, it can cause a drying affect, which is sensed mostly on the gums and tongue. Tannin is a natural preservative extracted from grape skins, otherwise known as polyphenols that are micronutrients and antioxidants with potential health benefits.
ACIDITY
Soft
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Acidity is a foundational component in wine. In fact, low acidity, or ‘flabby’ wine (as the term suggests) is a negative. You can sense acidity mainly on the sides of your tongue. Acidity generally ranges from balanced to high. Crisp acidity adds freshness, making your mouth water. Acidity is a necessary element and helps to balance other components.
SWEETNESS
Dry
Off Dry
Medium Dry
Medium Sweet
Very Sweet
Most wines are characterized as dry to off-dry, but there are some grape varietals, like Riesling, that run the gamut from dry to sweet. The tip of the tongue mainly detects sweetness, which is why it is often the primary characteristic detected. Sweetness is derived from residual sugar that did not ferment into alcohol.
ALCOHOL
14.5%
Alcohol is the by-product of fermentation. Differing grape varieties have differing potential alcohol levels, but regardless warmer areas result in riper grapes resulting in higher alcohol. Alcohol level is an objective number, but its affect on its palate impression is largely determined with how well integrated and balanced it is with other components.
We strive to make sure you always get you what you pay for, but often, as in cases like this, you get more.
GRAPE VARIETAL(S)
Syrah
50%See-RA
Syrah is widely planted throughout the world, but that was not so until the late twentieth century when Syrah was principally grown in the Rhone Valley and, as Shiraz, in Australia. Stylistically, the Palate Character of Syrah can vary depending on ripeness from a rich Round & Fleshy, Tone & Backbone, to a Powerful & Extracted. The flavors and aromas can also vary with a dark, sometimes sweet, fruit character, varying amount of spice, floral, and earth, and smoke, and meaty aromas and flavors.
Grenache
50%Gruh-NASH
Grenache is widely planted throughout the world but some of the best expressions come from the southern Rhone, and in Spain’s Priorat. Grenache has small berries with thick grape skins resulting in dark, tannic wine in its youth combined with an almost ripe sweetness and elevated alcohol. Often part of a blend, Grenache offers a lot of fruit, spice, with floral and herbal notes.
Jean-Louis Chave is the rare 18th-generation winemaker who continues to carry the torch of an estate that began in 1481 and continues to have the deserved distinction of being one of the finest producers in the Northern Rhône Valley.
Jean-Louis Chave makes traditional wines that exude a perfect balance of power and nuance achieved through low yields, strict vineyard management, minimal new oak, and slight intervention with no filtering.
The Chave estate does not produce single-site cuvées; rather both their Hermitage and St. Joseph wines are a blend of family-run vineyards, some of which are over 100-years-old, yielding wines of both complexity and purity.
Bramble
Lavender
Barnyard
Organic
